I would first like to point out that if you haven't seen this movie and are planning to, then don't read this blog post because I will be discussing the story line and the ending. I don't want to ruin it for anyone.
I admit that although Paranormal Activity scared me to death, it was the best scary movie I've ever seen. Paranormal Activity was filmed as a fake documentary. The premise of the film was that this undergrad student Katie, who currently lives with her boyfriend Micah, has been followed by this demonic entity since she was a child. Strange occurrences took place when she was little like her house burned down and she would always see a dark shadow at the edge of her bed. The characters and the audience never see the demon because it's invisible, which is important to keep in mind when analyzing the film. In the beginning, weird things started to take place in Katie and Micah's house. They began to hear noises and footsteps at night, and objects in the house would be in random places. To investigate, Micah documented their experience with a camera and begins to antagonize this demonic figure. After a series of extremely disturbing events including Katie getting dragged out of bed by the demon and pulled across the hallway, the demon eventually gets what it wants, which is Katie. At the end she is possessed by the demon and kills Micah.
I think this movie affected me so much because of various reasons. To start, the film is very psychological. It's not gory, a part from the last scene, which I think makes it scarier because in the movie the danger being observed by the audience is really directed at the characters' (and the audience's) mental state. I also think that since the movie is set up as a documentary it adds a slight touch of reality and the audience can connect to that. The characters live normal lives in the film and it's disturbing for an audience to see that an average person's life can be invaded and ruined by this force that the audience and characters can't even see. That really brings about the terrifying question: How can we fight something that we can't see? I think this deeply relates to Parker's mention that horror films boom during war time. The United States is fighting terrorism and it's hard to stop things like suicide bombers. Threats to society seem to be all over the place and could even be hidden in plain sight. I think that is one aspect of the film that is truly horrific, because we can't fight or face what we can't see. It also touches on the idea of torture - not physical torture but mental torture. The fear of a collapsed economy and an enemy that we can't always point out really takes a tool on people's minds.
Another reason why this movie is so scary, is that it doesn't quite follow all of the cliches we see in horror flicks today. When watching a film in the genre, I can usually point out the archetypal characters and figure out what's going to happen within the first 15 minutes. With this movie, I couldn't. Even though it's structured like the Blair Witch Project because it's filmed as a documentary and the audience can't see the threat, it doesn't have some of the same aspects that would normally make an audience member feel disconnected from the film. There's no music during the entire movie and there are no credits at the end. The audience is left in a haunting silence to soak in what just happened. Movies like One Missed Call and Dead Silence were just terrible because they were formatted to fit the horror genre. I've seen all of that before and I even laugh at it sometimes, because eventually it just becomes so overplayed. I think we don't see that many films like Paranormal Activity, so it stands out.
However, the film is not without it's archetypal themes. One theme that is illustrated in the film is masculinity. During one scene Micah is holding a very long, sharp knife while defending his masculinity and claiming that he is going to fix everything. That's quite an obvious phallic symbol. Micah's masculine presence becomes a problem for the demon, who after possessing Katie, seeks to kill him. At the end, the camera is situated in their bedroom and the possessed Katie goes downstairs and starts to scream. Micah then runs downstairs, screams, and then there's silence. Although the audience doesn't see Micah's murder, they later see his body and it appears that he has been stabbed several times. The audience comes to assume that Micah was stabbed by a knife - a symbol that he used as an extension of his masculinity. It seems like this is the typical way for the director to kill or "castrate" Micah and prove that his masculinity is meaningless.
This movie honestly scared me because I did feel like I was watching a documentary. I had to keep telling myself that it wasn't real. The fact that this antagonist in the film was invisible made it even worse, because it was not something that could be defeated and there was no resolution at the end. Overall, the movie was very effective in completing its goal of freaking people out.
Parker was also right in saying that many successful horror movies are made with a miniscule budget, but eventually make a lot of money. Paranormal Activity was first released in the Screamfest Film Festival in 2007 and was made on a budget of $15,000. When the film was released this year in about 200 theaters, it made approximately $9.1 million. The film also surpassed the Blair Witch Project's box office record. IMDB also stated that Paramount Pictures has announced that there may be a sequel - so we'll see if the next film follows the same format or tries something new.
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